Steven Gerrard’s journey to 100 England caps began with a birthday cake, a
trashed bedroom and an act of vandalism involving a tube of toothpaste.

Footballers’ initiation ceremonies tend to be severe and as he prepared for his international bow at the team hotel 12 years ago, Gerrard’s was no exception.

His debut under Kevin Keegan – a 2-0 win over Ukraine on May 31, 2000 – arrived a day after his 20th birthday. His present involved a frantic effort to relocate the belongings mercilessly tipped into the bath while the taps were running. The words “Happy Birthday you soft a---” were smeared on the bedroom wall.

“Toothpaste was everywhere, over the mirror, my bed, the table,” Gerrard recalled in his autobiography. “If I was a betting man, I would have put good money on Robbie Fowler as the mastermind and Steve McManaman as chief accomplice. One day, Fowler’s conscience will get to him and he will confess.”

Call it a gift to mark the England captain’s landmark appearance against Sweden – he was cleared to travel to Stockholm on Monday night following a scan on a knee injury sustained against Chelsea on Sunday – but that confession seems to have arrived.

“I can’t remember exactly, but it probably was me,” says Fowler. “You’d only do those kind of things to the lads you knew and liked and, in Stevie’s case, who you knew was going to be around for a long, long time. So yeah, I think that was the kind of initiation ceremony we’d have got up to.”

Fowler, one of England’s goalscorers in the subsequent friendly, a warm up before Euro 2000, recalls that Gerrard’s potential to become a fixture in England colours was obvious from the moment he emerged on to the senior scene at Liverpool.

“When Stevie first joined the first team training at Liverpool he was a small, quite skinny lad,” recalls Fowler. “He shot up in size just before he got into the Liverpool first team and he had a few muscle injuries which stopped him making his debut sooner.

“If I’m honest, apart from his obvious ability, the first thing I can remember about Stevie when he joined us was that horrendous fringe he had. It was shocking. Fortunately it looks as if he’s got a stylist since those days, but those photographs are still out there to remind everyone.

“What really stood out even then was how nothing would ever faze him, whether making his debut for Liverpool and then England.

“It’s a well-deserved honour for him to get to 100 caps. He’s been Liverpool’s best player for many, many years, and alongside John Terry I’d say he’s been England best over the same period.

“He should have been England’s captain a long, long time ago. He can come across to people who don’t know as a bit surly at times, but he’s the perfect captain for his club and his country.

“He controls that dressing room, and looks after his team-mates the way you would want a captain to.

“I don’t remember too much about his first game against Ukraine, but I know it was clear to everyone who saw Stevie play he was going to have a long career at the very highest level. I’m proud to be able to say I scored in Steven Gerrard’s first international.”

Some of those involved in those early England training sessions attest to Gerrard’s impeccable first impression.

Goalkeeper Nigel Martyn said: “You quickly saw what a class player he was. He had that drive and determination even at that young age and a hunger about him that said he wanted to win football matches.

“If that meant going into a tackle with Alan Shearer or Tony Adams, who were big, big players for England, then so be it.”

Gareth Southgate, who also played in that debut match, said: “The thing that sticks in my mind about him is how crisp a passer of the ball he was. He really rapped passes to you in training.”

As with Liverpool, Gerrard’s ultimate international ambitions remain unfulfilled. At Anfield, only a Premier League winners’ medal has eluded him. For England, he has been unable to sustain a serious challenge in an international tournament. He has been an extraordinary player during an ordinary era for the national team.

There were times when he could justifiably feel misused by his country. When he was considered by many to be the most complete central midfielder in Europe between 2004-2008, England managers opted to send him to either the left or right of midfield. Too often, natural versatility ensured he was compromised.

The belated awarding of the captaincy was also absurd, with Fabio Capello wrongly misinterpreting Gerrard’s quiet, confident authority as inhibition and Stuart Pearce preferring Scott Parker in the role prior to Roy Hodgson’s appointment.

Today, Gerrard is the perfect ambassador for English football, the prototype captain who will feel as much pride for what leading his country on his 100th appearance means to his father, Paul, as himself.

He will seek to celebrate the landmark in typically conspicuous style on the park by leading the side to victory in Sweden, and discreetly off it with a family meal this weekend.

If the England squad is short of ideas for their own private commemoration, there may be a shortage of toothpaste at the team hotel by Wednesday evening.